The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to non-destructive inspection of components. Specifically, the system relates to an on-site eddy current based inspection of coated components in rotary machines.
Inspection of components for the presence of anomalies prevents premature failures in rotary machines. Early detection of flaws in such components helps in rectification or replacement of components during regular maintenance schedule. Typical maintenance procedures for a component provided with a protective coating, includes stripping of the protective coating and conducting fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI) to detect cracks in the base material. In addition, components such as buckets of the rotor are typically dismantled on site and are shipped to the inspection site. Conventional inspection techniques require inspection of all components even when cracks are not visible on the surface. Such requirements introduce discontinuity in operation of the machines and increase the cost of maintenance.
In a Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) technique, data is acquired by scanning a surface of the component and defects in the component are detected by performing an analysis of the acquired data. Inspected components such as airfoils in gas turbines, and coated turbo components in locomotive diesel engines, may have 3D geometry and data acquisition from a complex surface of the component may not be satisfactory. Also, the scanning probe may not be in a perfect position during scanning, thereby generating several types of noise due to lift-off and tilting. Further, data acquisition near edges of the components is more difficult and may introduce additional noise components. Also, crack detection of the component is time consuming and can lengthen the downtime of normal operations.
Therefore, there is a need for an enhanced system and method for inspection of components.